The Tar Heels announced Friday that Collins would be their new defensive coordinator, replacing Gene Chizik after his two-year stint in Chapel Hill. Collins, a 52-year-old Georgia native, has spent 11 seasons as a defensive coordinator in the NCAA Division I ranks, with stops at Florida, Florida International and Mississippi State in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Western Carolina in the Football Championship Subdivision.
In a release announcing the move, which returns Collins to coaching and the Atlantic Coast Conference after a one-season absence, Brown called the newest addition to his staff a “brilliant defensive mind.”
Collins was fired in late September 2022, after a 1-3 start to his fourth season at Georgia Tech. He went 10-28 overall and 7-19 in ACC play with the Yellow Jackets while trying to transition the program from 11 years of run-based option football under head coach Paul Johnson to a pro-style spread offense. Before that, Collins was 15-10 overall and 11-5 in American Athletic Conference play in two seasons at Temple.
